Show Me The Money

I've decided that I need to increase my money situation.  There are ways to do this.  I am not totally bereft, I can increase side incomes from various income streams.

My biggest talents are music, grappling, and cooking.  Lately, I've been obsessing about music because that is the most fun thing in the world to do.  But in reality, nobody will pay you to have fun.  Music is not lucrative these days, and rock n roll is a dying genre.  Most people these days listen to Kanye West or Beyonce or Taylor Swift or Soulja Boy.  There's no place for authentic rhythm and blues musicians in this part of the world. 

Judo can be a career if you are a black belt, have won a major tournament, and have a loyal following of students.  But that too is not a profitable business.  And to be a commercial martial arts instructor who automatically debits people's credit cards is sleazy.  Real judo instructors do it for the love and don't think about the money.  They would lose money teaching judo let alone gain money.

And then there was cooking.  This a lucrative skill, since everyone eats, and food is the basic drive of a human being.  At this juncture, I am a Master Chef.  But I don't want to work in a commercial restaurant standing on my feet 8 hours per day.  I just can't do it.  But there are other outlets to using nutritional skills to make money and more importantly to educate the youth.

So between music, judo, and cooking, cooking and nutrition is the most profitable thing for me.  I want to be a rockstar, but this is not a realistic ambition.  And my scholastic education didn't help me.  College is a scam. 

So If I want the money, and therefore a higher class of women, I need to get realistic about what I can do and get paid for it.  Cooking is fun and lucrative, and it is exciting to deal with food all day. 

So Show Me The Money.

My Ding-A-Ling

This was Chuck Berry's only Number One Hit.  And it was a joke song that was meant to be an inuendo about his penis.  It shows you that sometimes the market doesn't have the best sense of what is good and what is bad.

I know in my own music career so far, my favorite songs are less popular, and songs I feel are less meritorious are most popular with the audience.  What I like and what they like is two different things.  But the music is for them, it's not for me.

I want to record the next album, 'Rhythm and Blues World Service' soon.  But first I must learn new covers, write new originals, and practice more with the electric.  I am used to playing my acoustic exclusively.

Now that I am not doing acupuncture or graphic design, I can dedicate all my time to music.  I have other hobbies, like cooking and judo, but music is my main thing.  I wouldn't be happy without it.

So I will start work soon.  I have nothing but time. 

I am Born Again

I spent the last two days convalescing from eating bad soup.  I vomited.  Then I spent all of Saturday in bed.  Now it is sunrise on a Sunday and I plan on using this day fully.

The main thing in life is to be happy and productive.  It is not to acquire a lot of stuff or money or lovers.  Less is more not more is more. 

Right now, a few dollars are trickling in from the streams and downloads of my music.  I know my music's popularity is growing, especially in places like Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, and Sweden.  But I can't reach them, because I am by myself, and I have no money to spend.

If I was smart, I'd invest time and effort in learning digital marketing and network more.  The internet has changed the way humanity does business.  Also, plane flight makes the world a smaller place, so I could theoretically travel.

I have albums out through CDBaby and Routenote.  I am on YouTube and Spotify.  I started playing out at restaurants and coffeeshops. 

The money is not the important part, money is only worldly value.  But I need to survive too.  If I had more business savvy, I'd learn to monetize what I do.

The important thing is to do a little bit every day and never give up on yourself.  I am actually glad I got sick and recovered.  Now it is Sunday and I get to cook, do laundry, and play guitar today.  Sunday Funday.

I envision great things for my music career.  I want to play at churches and synagogues.  I want to teach guitar.  And I would like to someday play on the Indian reservation on long island.  They get it.  Native Americans have a different value system than the White Man.  They feel the boogie.

I may never be rich and famous, but at least I have more merit than the Chinsy Beatles.  That's pop music.  They had some great hits, but they weren't the best music act ever, just the most popular.  My favorite song of theirs was 'Can't Buy Me Love', but I also like their later period when they were more musically mature.

My favorite acts were either blues or blues based.  I like Cream, CCR, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and all the people who influenced them.  This is the music of unbounded creativity and expression.  In this type of music, you are rewarded for creativity and originality, in this society, you are punished.  So music can be an act of rebellion. 

So I will keep rebelling against an evil society and playing music.  I don't even want to be a copywriter or designer.  That is boring crap and I don't need a house, wife, or children.  Less is more not more is more.

My favorite things are music, poetry, and home cooking.  And I will keep doing that and being happy with it.

Everybody's Working for The Weekend

It's finally here.  After playing at a Mexican restaurant on Valentine's Day, I got a taste of what Open Mic nights at restaurants are like.  It is nice to be an entertainer.  You have to start somewhere.  I don't mind starting at the bottom if the long term goal is to be an entertainer.

I am going again tonight to the Open Mic night at the Mexican restaurant.  I will play a few songs and have some food.  It will be fun.  The thing is, my work week is not that busy, so the weekends are actually the payoff for having a long boring week.

It says in the Tao Te Ching, 'Accomplish the great by a series of small acts.' That means, do a little bit every day and don't give up on yourself.  That is how you gain success.

I'd like to be a musician now that my judo career is over.  I didn't get much for it anyway. 

I don't want a boring day job in an acupuncture clinic or a graphic design office anyway.  I want to learn how to monetize my music.  I would also continue writing books on Taoist Nutrition and how not to get used by an evil system. 

There are a lot of opportunities on long island for a musician.  There are restaurants and bars everywhere.  But the real big market is in NYC.  That's where the money is.  I have to build up to that.  I have to gain experience playing infront of smaller audiences.   So I will accomplish the great by a series of small acts.  The Asians are the best at warfare, because they are bright.  They understand how to use a limited amount or resources in a big way. 

So I will apply my enormous talent in a big way and get a big result.

I Want You To Stream My Music

I thought I'd be blunt in this blog post.  I am not getting enough streams and downloads of my music on YouTube and Spotify.  YouTube is growing slightly because of the homemade videos I am uploading every few days, but Spotify seems to be growing slowly.

I have 5 albums online right now, the original album came off the internet because it was costing just ot keep it up.  I like the lifestyle of a musician and I am growing in notoriety.

Although I am not black, I play rhythm and blues ala the 1960s, and I sound pretty good.  I try to push past the three chord song and make it simple but memorable. 

What is life if you don't enjoy every minute?  Of course there are some unpleasant things in life, but an enlightened man keeps the same mindstate no matter what he is experiencing.  If you were smart, you'd work on Zen not acquiring more stuff. 

Music can be part of zen and yoga.  Music has to be experienced as it is being created.  Art is different.  In art, you put in hours of hard work, to create a finished piece that is consumed in seconds.  In music, especially live performances, the musician and the audience are both experiencing the music as it is being played.  Even a recording is a recreation of a live performance.

So I dig music more than art.  But both have its place in society.  Don't neglect either.  They are part of culture.

So I want to grow as a musician and make more money from it.  So please head to YouTube or Spotify and follow me there.  I have very few followers on YouTube and Spotify, but I am getting constant streams.  I am making a few bucks of each album, but i want to make more.  It would make sense for me to learn music marketing strategies to reach a bigger audience. 

Peace.

A Deep and Far Reaching Post

The world is not the way it should be.  People have realized that the Christian church has lied to them for two millennia, and they have abandoned religion.  There is nothing right about the world.  The very word 'spirituality' is the antithesis of the word 'materialism'.  You can be in the spirit or in the body.  As a human being, you need both a spirit and a body, and the mind is in-between the two.

Christianity is a fraud.  Jesus won't come out of the sky to resurrect corpses on Judgement Day.  The whole concept of Judgement Day comes from Jewish theology, but the Christian fathers distorted the idea and took the Jewish Scriptures too literally.  There will never be one finite day when Jesus comes out of the sky and corpses come out of the ground to live in Paradise again.

What Kabbalists, Sufis, Mystics, and Taoist Masters know is, there is a kind of spiritual evolution as well as a physical evolution.  Lifetime after lifetime, your soul grows wiser as you learn your lessons.  A soul is by nature immortal, and you get more than one lifetime to live and learn.  If that wasn't the case, God would be cruel and I don't believe in a cruel God.

There are only three real religions.  The old religion of paganism, the new religion of Judaism, and the promise of Christianity.  Then there is nature religion like Tao, which is not religion at all but observing what works in nature.  Paganism has been disproven.  Even the greatest yogic master is still just a smelly guy who eats curry and meditates all day.  We are not supposed to be nonviolent, vegan, and hypersexual.  A man should know self defense, eat meat, and marry a woman.  Of course, a normal man wants to avoid violence, is moderate in food, and lusts for his woman every night.

Judaism is the best religion.  I don't care if it makes me unpopular to say this.  I am not an observant Jew, but I have a Jewish education, and I am thankful for it.  I took the ball and ran with it.  Jews are extremely intelligent, and speak in simple words.  They can observe obvious reality.  They have nothing to hide, the truth doesn't hurt their feelings.

Wrestling is the best martial art.  Judaism is the best religion.  Sugar restriction is the only real way for an obese person to lose the weight.  Man was meant to live in a semi tropical environment and eat a mixed diet. 

The truth should not hurt your feelings.  If it does, it shows you are living a lie. 

I have gone beyond what my parents taught me and experienced things for myself.  My most important education was in TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine.  TCM is based on Taoist philosophy, and this philosophy brings me great peace and consolation.  Taoist philosophy is simple.  It is based on the idea that all of Creation exists in duality, of masculine and feminine forces, and only the Creator is beyond duality.  So no one is pure good or pure evil.  And no one is pure male or pure female.  It is even proven scientifically that each embryo begins with the X chromosome alone, so we all start out female.  That means even Mike Tyson started out a female.  And he can knock you out in the first round.  If at some point you acquire the Y chromosome, you are born male, and have testicles and can produce semen.  In sex, the man gives and the woman receives.  This is the way it should be, nice and easy.

As an aside, the average man on the street has one Y chromosome.  The average guy in prison has two Y chromosomes  So they are dominant males.  They are extremely aggressive, violent, crude, competitive, and don't observe society's rules.  A man born with three Y chromosomes is an auspicious birth.

Another concept of Taoism is virtue.  That word means power or character or the good qualities of a human being.  One is born with a certain virtue, and one can develop it too.  The three main virtues stressed in Taoist thought are humility, compassion, and simplicity.  But I won't go too far into it in this post.

Another concept of Taoism is Wu Wei Wu, or Doing Not Doing.  It does not mean passivity or inaction.  It means being spontaneous, and acting in according with your own inner nature.  Sometimes doing nothing is best, and sometimes, punching people in the face is best.  Whatever the situation calls for. 

Taoism is a rich tradition and is not Judaism, Christianity, nor is it Hinduism or any derivative of polytheism.  This is indeed a deep and far reaching post.  In these trying times, don't abandon religion.  You should abandon Christianity, Nietzsche told you this 150 years ago, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.  There are other mystical systems to explore.  And don't self identify as this religion or that religion.  Learn from others, examine yourself, and figure things out for yourself.  I am most inspired by the Tao Te Ching and the Baghavad Gita.  The main book of Taoism and the main book of Yogic philosophy. 

Ultimately, I am not religious.  I am just someone who lives a certain lifestyle of bliss and enlightenment.  So I am better than the Rabbi who lives off of donations or the Catholic priest who rapes your children.  I am a spiritual master, and yet, I have no disciples.  Because I don't advertise nor do I want to.   Jewish people pass down spiritual secrets to their offspring the way Chinese people pass down secret Kung Fu techniques to their offspring.  I have no one to pass down anything to. 

Moving forward, I want to continue producing music.  I want to write more insightful lyrics about these deep concepts.  But it's hard to write any song, let alone about shamanism and Tao and spirituality.  And then you got to make it rhyme and be marketable.  Songwriting is not easy, that is why original musicians get famous.  They have merit.

I am not even interested in working an an acupuncture clinic or graphic design office.  I want to be a musician and author and keep producing stuff for the world.  If I was smart, I'd learn the marketing aspect of business not just the actual craft of what I am doing.  Talent is useless.

So this is a deep and far reaching post.  I am not a Christian or Hindu, and although my seed is Jewish, I practice a kind of Taoist lifestyle.  But I know God is greater than mortal man.  Nobody is 'the master'.  In spirituality, one learns to be humble and gracious.  The ultimate teaching is God is Love, and in loving one another, you make the world a better place.

Being Less Ambitious

And more fulfilled.  Right now, my music is reaching an unheard of peak.  I am playing better than ever.  But the sad part is, nobody listens to Chuck Berry and his style of Rhythm and Blues anymore.  They listen to Bruno Mars and consider that rhythm and blues.

I don't care if my music is antiquated.  In other parts of the country and world, this music is still hip.  I once walked into a pool hall in Tel Aviv and they were playing the Beatles on the loudspeaker.  There is an audience somewhere for real acoustic rhythm and blues.

Life would be a mistake without music.  Music is a type of emotional therapy, and everybody is frustrated.  Not everyone needs art galleries or books, but everyone needs music.  The only good thing about this generation is that there are more musicians than ever, but few really talented ones. 

I don't need that much money.  Money is not the issue.  There are good looking but poor girls out there who don't require a lot of money to be happy.  You need looks and money to get a girl.

I want to chill out and focus less on money and success.  I can easily budget myself, get out more, find low cost or no cost entertainment, and guide the youth.  The pool, the library, the bookstore, the park, the religious center, are all cheap entertainment.  I do not need a wife and some children to be happy.  Dating is for sex, Marriage is for raising a family.  And there is nothing wrong with strippers.

The main problem with Americans is that they live for some postponed joy in the future rather than living in the present moment.  What are you doing, right here and now, to be happy?  Even when you are working or driving your car you should be happy doing it.  At any given moment, you have a choice to do it with enthusiasm or just do it like a slave.

No matter who you are and what you do, you are going to grow old and die.  It goes without saying.  Don't think you are immortal and invincible.  Because you are not.  Just try to work on zen and reach a higher level of moral character.  Moral character and happiness are almost synonyms. 

So I have less and yet I have more.  I even eat better food than most Americans because restaurant food is commercial garbage and homemade food is better.  The first thing you instruct a child in is nutrition.  It is basic knowledge. 

So I will keep doing what i can under these circumstances.  I can keep releasing albums and self published books and get out in the community more.  What I am trying to teach is, less is more not more is more.  More stuff does not make you more happy.  There comes a point where more money is almost useless.  It is the internal mindstate that determines happiness and contentment.

So I am less ambitious but more fulfilled.  I don't need more stuff.  If you want to be entertained for free, look for Lior Avni on YouTube and Spotify.  I'd appreciate more followers on YouTube and Spotify.  Also, check out my reverbnation profile.  I will put a link below.

www.reverbnation.com/lioravni

Anyway, listen to the blues and therapize yourself.  Have a nice day.

Giving up on Society

I've decided to give up on society.  I have also decided to give up on this blog.  Why should I give away such scholastic knowledge for free?  I might as well save it up for a book and profit from it, not post my thoughts to the internet.  My thoughts are valuable, I am an enlightened thinker.

Music is my favorite thing in the world, but I doubt I can make a living doing it.  Had I lived in the 1960s, I would have been a rockstar.  But this generation is about porno and MMA not rock n roll music.  I'm a bit late.

Two things I could keep doing is practicing and teaching judo and writing books.  I have two books online on Amazon, and I am in great shape for a 41 year old.  In my prime, between 26 and 30, I was very active in judo and sambo.  It culminated in sambo at the age of 30.

So I am not just a musician.  I am also an author and jacket wrestler.  Aristotle once said, 'where your talents, and the needs of the world intersect, there lies your vocation.'  He was pretty spot on about that one.

If I could, I'd play guitar and sing all day, and ultimately, I'd get nowhere.  I don't want to waste my life.  I need to get more results driven.  Judo can get me some results, and writing can get me some results.

I enjoy writing about many different topics, but I find nutrition writing is most attractive to others.  Everybody loves to gab about nutrition and then go eat a hamburger.  The real lesson of nutrition is, do a little bit every day.  Your diet means your lifestyle, and each morsel of food you eat brings up up or down the health ladder.  It is by being consistent that you get results.  And it takes a lot of patience.

So I must do what I must do.  Every day, I will find time for music, because it soothes my soul.  But I also must be successful and leave something to posterity.  So I will keep writing nutrition books and practicing/teaching judo.  Life is a balancing act. 

I'm not really giving up on society, I am just giving up on Hollywood dreams of being famous and rich.  That will never happen, so I am just letting it go.  Just get over fantasyland.

I'ts Just Money

Money is not the real power.  Knowledge is the real power.  If you are educated, you can live a good life regardless of whether you are rich or poor.  More money won't make you more happy.

Yes, you need the bare minimum of food, shelter, and clothing.  You might also need communications, transportation, and entertainment.  But it's not that hard to make a living.  Just do what you must do to get the bare minimum and then stop working.  You can't take it with you when you go.

America is ten times richer than any other nation, but is not ten times better off.  Most people don't know the first thing about nutrtition, longevity, exercise, or spiritual attainment.  Their values are distorted, and they have no real joy.  So although I am poor, living on an austere budget, I am better.

I wish I could help America, but it seems nobody wants my instruction.  At least playing the guitar is fun.  Through music, I can be a teacher and healer and guide the others.  I could write some clever song lyrics about these concepts, but I am not going to tell you to eat pork and beans in a song.  That would be silly.

So as time moves on, I will dedicate more time to judo and music and less to trying to be rich and successful.  It is only by doing what you love with enthusiasm that you get the extra results and become rich and successful.  So once again, my philosophy is right.  Don't do it for the money, do it for the love, and the money will be a side benefit.  I don't do anything for money.

I know I should be practicing judo because it is not something you retire from.  Yes, at 35 you are too old and slow for Olympic competition, but Olympic Judo is not the only aspect of judo there is.  There is club randori, local tournaments, conditioning, the atemi waza, the Goshin Budo Jitsu, kata, etc...

Judo is a complete system of physical and moral training.  It is not just Olympic sport, physical education, or a police officer taking you down with Osoto and pinning you knee on stomach.

I want to do my hobbies til I'm done.  Now that I'm older, music is more fun than judo, but I shouldn't abandon either.  I don't do it for the money.  What's money?

Basic Human Civility

I don't see capitalism as basic human civility.  Capitalism doesn't work, and it makes you more a slave than communism does.  Neither Capitalism nor Communism really work, and the whole history of the twentieth century where two hard, strong imperialistic forces, USA and Russia, pitted against each other over political idealogies invented by secular Jews.

Don't blame the Jews.  There is a big difference between secular Jews and religious Jews.  Karl Marx was a Russian Jew who dreamed of Utopia where people were all equally poor, the government had no special power, and people got everything from the state.   But that is not realistic.  In any society, the hard, shrewd, cunning men will predate on the weaker minded, more simple and humble men.  It is just like jail or prison.  In a free for all, weak men don't survive.

Capitalism is equally wrong.  Capitalism lasted longer because it appeals to lowest common denominator, to man's greed and self interest.  But Capitalism ruined everything and America is the laughing stock of Europe, Israel, and Asia.  Life in society is not about survival of the fittest.  It is not a fair society to begin with.  If you are born to upright parents who are wealthy and educated, then most likely you will end up wealthy and educated.  Rich parents can send rich children to rich schools which gets them rich jobs.

If you have the misfortune of being born poor, you will most likely not go to college, get in a lot of fistfights in school, impregnate your high school girlfriend, and get mixed up in drugs.  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Whether you are born rich or poor is a matter of luck and fortune not the strength of your genome.  Americans generally don't believe in reincarnation, brahmanism, nor a caste system.  Hinduism is not the true religion.

Europe is Socialist and that is basic human civility.  The theory of socialism is very simple.  If you want the bare minimum for free, we will give it to you, but if you want more than the bare minimum, then you must work for it, and we will tax everything you make.  There are millionares in Europe who make 2 million dollars per year but pay 50% of their income as tax.  So they are still millionares even though they are paying half their salary as tax.  And since medicine and education is on the government, they don't really have many expenses.  Britain, France, and Germany is the real leader of the free world and the USA is a joke.  The Russians are extremely hard, militaristic people who despise the Jews and aren't ashamed of it.  The Russians and the Americans are very similar people.

Both are hard, militaristic, into business and warfare, but they do it differently.  The Russians are more blatant and straightforward, the Americans are more sneaky.  Everything in America is a business, and you can buy anything you want.  You can buy sex, food, medicine, education, freedom, dignity, safety, fame, you name it.

I do not want to live in the USA or in Russia.  The only reason they became super powers is because they are hard military men who fight for resources.  Both the American midwest and the Ukraine is fertile land that produces a lot of grain and other natural resources.  The best commodities are oil, silver, gold, pork bellies, oranges, etc...

I wish I could move to Israel and live in peace.  Israel is the safe place for the Jews, and Jews know what it is like to be an outcast.  They are more tolerant towards blacks, gypsies, homosexuals, transgenders, and every other type of oppressed minority.   They've learned their lesson from the holocaust.  Pride is the worst sin, and Aryan supremacy is just a myth.

Judaism is obviously the best religion.  It is about strict monotheism and the concept of divine justice.  God created the world, but the devil rules the world until he is defeated on judgement day.  So we must endure until the end.  Suffering is grace, and being an outcast of an evil society is actually a blessing in disguise.  The best people are poor, humble, and simple.  I've met my share of poor, humble, and simple people.  I'm a good Jew.

So Capitalism is not even basic human civility, and Americans don't practice real Christianity.  Real Christianity is about a certain group of Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah who could ressurect the dead.  But this is a misinterpretation of the scriptures.  Every Jew secretly believes in an immortal soul and reincarnation, just like a pagan druid or a pagan Egyptian does.  The only difference is monotheism and polytheism.  One God or Many Gods.  So you can be a good pagan or a good Jew and reach the same end.  But I have still not found a real Christian.  Someone who practices what they preach.  Nobody is perfect, everyone sins, lust is incessant, and everyone dies.  And since your soul will outlive your body, we don't need a physical resurrection.  That is just mythology. 

Basic Human Civility means medicine and education for all paid for by the state.  If you can't work, you deserve a basic income from the government and live on a low budget.  You do not owe the government anything, they owe you.  As a citizen of your country, you are valuable and important and have certain inalienable rights.  Obviously, with free education, anyone with some kind of talent can get a certificate, BA, or something similar and get paying work in something they are interested in.  If medicine doesn't cost you anything, then doctors don't get rich and don't prescribe unnecessary surgeries and treatments just to get rich.  Doctors in Israel are poor but hard working and altruistic.

I know my life will improve once I get back to Israel. One man's trash is another man's treasure.  In America, I am trash, but in Israel, I am treasure.  And ultimately, Israel is the holy land and America is the Whore of Babylon.  People start in student loan debt, live paycheck to paycheck, and die in medical debt.  All the while, they eat low quality food that makes them ill and watch too much porno.  The American lifestyle is exhausting and is all based on imitating Hollywood. 

Basic Human Civility means justice.  It means giving to those who have to little and taking from those who have too much.  Americans seem to do the oppposite.  To think, if I am richer, it is because my genome is more preferential and I am a real survivor.  But business is warfare and based on deception not on being objectively better.  Greco Roman Wrestling is about being objectively better, you throw and pin the weaker man and assert dominance.  White society is nothing like Greco Roman Wrestling.  It is more like a shanking in the prison cafeteria.  It has nothing to do with being fair, honest, straightforward, or better.

So I will live quietly in America til it's time to move back to Israel.  All in all, I wasted my youth, young adulthood, twenties, thirties, and only at the age of 39 did I discover writing and publishing music.  The past two years have been a ball.  The creativity unleashes something latent within you.  My music marketing guru was a retarded man with a speech impediment.  I don't look down on him, he helped me.  But I learned that even below average people can have the courage and mental toughness to apply themselves and see where it gets them.  I am above average in talent, if I apply myself, I could be a celebrity.  So my life began in zen and ended in music.  It was not a waste, and I am glad I was born and never quit.  It is only once you consider yourself defeated that you are defeated. 

The real secret to success is to do a little bit every day and never quit on yourself.  Basic Human Civility means giving to those who have too little.  I want to give my music to the world and also write books on Taoist Nutrition so people won't be used by the system in America.  I have 5 albums and 2 books right now online.  I want to heal the people, and I do it through entertainment and through education.  That is the best, when you can entertain and educate at the same time.

I think I'm onto something.

What are You Doing?

What are you doing, right here and now, to be happy?  This is what any Buddhist master should ask you.  Don't live your whole life postponing happiness until some later time.  The money will not make you happy.  Neither will the material goods, which I call Stuff.

I live for the present moment and nothing else.  I make love all day long, but I keep my pants on.  Making love is not having sex.  Sex is a biological act.

Nowadays, I enjoy music, judo, cooking writing, self care and chores, and dating.  I prefer the senioritas.

I budget myself on my low income and I hustle on the side with music and copywriting and cab rides.  I am poor and honest.

If you were really smart, you'd invest some time every day in meditation and yoga.  You'd also learn a thing or two about nutrition.  This is common sense for people who don't want to be miserable.

I could write volumes on wholistic health.  But I am sneaky.  I won't give it away for free.  One of my ambition is to write a self illustrated book this year on health, nutrition, fitness, and yoga for young people.  Confucious once said, 'If planting for a hundred years, educate the youth.'

I want to educate the youth.  I won't make killing in the private sector, and I am not a gay loser so I won't be a priest.  I have talent and I can apply it somehow.  I have the means, I just don't know how to use it. 

One thing I must do is grapple again.  And I must play my guitar outside the home, not just for myself or for recordings.  It is by applying yourself in the outer world that you get results.  Don't stay at home all day.  You'll accomplish nothing that way.

Right now, I have 5 albums online, and 2 books.  All the albums feature original rhythm and blues music, and the books are about nutrition and wholistic health.  So I consider myself succesful, influential, and talented, but not rich.  The money is not the important part.

I do stuff all day long to be happy, and even when I must do something unpleasant, like clean the kitchen, take out the garbage, or brush my teeth, I do it with zeal and enthusiasm.  It is called 'Service with a Smile.' 

I encourage you to do the right thing with enthusiasm.  It is the only way to get the right result.

God is Love

This will not be a post on comparative religion.  Nobody these days clings to religion, it makes you feel ashamed of yourself.  Christianity is dying, Judaism is hated, and Islam is growing.  We don't need religion.  We need desire.

When I say God is Love, I mean he is not power or justice or forgiveness or mercy or victory.  God is Love.  If you believe in God, then by inference, you also believe in the Devil.

God and the Devil is the whole religion.  The JudeoChristian religion.  God created the world, but the Devil rules the world.  So the blues is the music of real life, of tragedy and hardship and loneliness.  I feel the boogie.

John Lee Hooker sang about Money and Women.  My first album was called Money and Women, but I took it off the internet after one year because it was costing just to keep it online, so I was losing money.  I found better publishing sites like CDBaby and Routenote where you make money and don't lose money.

I hear Distrokid is good too.

The blues is the music of the slaves.  It is music about real life, not about aspiring to anything or worshiping God or Jesus.  It started with people like Robert Johnson, who was a bizarre genius who mastered the instrument.  Later people like Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker brought it to the masses.

So for me, music and religion is closely intertwined.  Rosetta Tharpe inspired Chuck Berry, he invented rock n roll.  Pop music from America is largely due to black people and their creativity.

The real secret to rhythm and blues and rock n roll is embellishment.  Without embellishment, it would just be Chinese music!  The way a black man plays guitar, he hammers on, pulls off, slides up and down, vibrato, bends the strings, etc...  Without the embellishments, it is simply a pentatonic scale.  A five note scale.  This music is extremely formulaic and simple.  But without it, there is no joy for me.

So my love is music, and I offer my songs to the Lord.  It is my method of worship.  I don't like synagogue or church or prayer or reading the bible.  Church and Synagogue is largely a social event, not an expression of faith.  For me, music is my expression of faith.  I play with enthusiasm. 

So God is Love and there is no more religion.  People don't want to be Jews or Christians because then they can't enjoy porno and MMA.  Religion makes them feel like they are sinners.  But the real spiritual man knows we are all sinners and we are all equal in suffering.  So music can be part of your spiritual lifestyle.  It is lived religion.

So I will continue playing music and see where it leads me.

Desire

You will learn someday, that desire moves the cosmos.  Power is not power.  Love is power.  The desire gives you the will to fight, to love, to heal, to create, do whatever you want to do. 

I've been doing both music and grappling a long time.  My scholastic educations did not seem to help me much.  But music and grappling, hobbies I've had since the 1990s, did.  I spent more time sharing judo with the world than my music.  I played music since 1995, but only started publishing records in 2017.  Don't want to be way late.

I wasted a lot of time.  Had I started recording albums sooner, and playing infront of people when I was 19, I would be a millionare musician by now.  But that didn't happen.  I saw Royce Gracie in the UFC and became obsessed with judo and jiu-jitsu.  I wanted to be the champion.

Now that I am 41, I can't really be a touring musician.  I'm too old and slow.  I can't do 2 hour live sets infront of many people.  At best, I can play at a church or synagogue and dream of things that might have been. 

But at least my education helped me, I attained zen, and my hobbies have become full time occupations.  I am still a musician and grappler.  But because I was immature and wanted to be the champion, I spent more time doing judo and less time doing music.

What I am trying to impart is, don't have distorted values.  Self defense is for children.  The reason you do karate, judo, or any other martial art is to empower you to do something in the world, not to be Cassius.  I should have done something else than master judo and matwork.  But it is too late to do something else. Change is bad.  Start in your youth, and keep doing it til its done.  So I must grapple again, even though I have kind of outgrown grappling, and not switch to something else. 

I want to live out my days in peace, living on a budget, training matwork, playing music at the religious center, and eating good food.  I am less ambitious and more fulfilled.  So I am doing better than most Americans, who want more money and power and women. 

Desire moves the cosmos.  Sex is a physical reaction, love is an emotion.  You can love a girlfriend, a wife, a car, a guitar, a song, a book, etc...  The emotion is the important part not the tangible reality.  Music is all emotional and intangible.  Judo is about the right thing at the right time.

So I will not lament the misspent past.  Just do what I can while I can still do it.  That's all.

Music and Sport in the Dominican Repbulic

Some people are less ambitious but more fulfilled.  I know Dominicans, Haitians,and Jamaicans, and they are lively people.  They are essentially blacks mixed in with native Americans who speak various languages of Europe.  They come from the Caribbean, and live more humble, simple lives.

America is all about business and warfare.  And business itself is a kind of warfare, based on deception not being stronger and better.  Americans are ten times richer than any other country, but they are not ten times better off.  Most people I see are less fit, less happy, have wrinkly faces, and look mentally ill and unstable.

So what is money worth?  All you need is to pay the bills and then stop.  Money is worldly value, Love is spiritual value.  Get the money, take care of what you need to take care of, and then do what you love.  Life is too short to not do what you love. 

Freud said, 'work and love, love and work, that's all there is.'  He was right.  You either do it for the love or for the money.  A prostitute's job is to make love for money.  But she is just doing acts of physical gratification not making love.  She doesn't care who she is fucking, it's just a business.  Similarly, a cagefighter is just fighting in a cage for money.  He doesn't care who he is fighting, he is doing it for the money.  Prostitutes love sex and cagefighters love fighting.  Porno and MMA are big businesses in America.

Society is degrading and America is lowest common denominator.  Money and everything else.  I am trying to help America, by teaching them how to be happy.  Less is more, not more is more.  More stuff does not make you more happy.  Stuff cannot make you happy.

I like music and sport.  I am part Latino, not just Jewish.  My favorite sport is judo, and my favorite music is rhythm and blues from the 1960s.  I like other sports and other forms of music, but in general that is true.  I have had experiences with boxing, sambo, flamenco music, rock n roll, and reggae.  But in general, I like music and sport.  I am less ambitious but more fulfilled.  So who's better?

I will continue doing what I love, sharing it with others, and getting out of the house.  I am not motivated by the money, I am self sufficient because I budget myself and don't really value material goods.  I budget per day, per week, and per month.  Life in any society goes month by month. 

I would like to visit the Dominican Republic but I can't afford it right now.  I feel it is my spiritual homeland.  I also like Israel and Mexico.  Living all your life in the suburbs of New York City is boring.  I don't need to spend all my time here.

All I know is, my music is exceptional, and if I keep going in this way, there will be results.  My judo career is practically over, but my music career is just starting.  Music is not based on phsyicality.  It is not a sport.  You can play a guitar from age 8 to 80.  John Lee Hooker played until he died at age 90. 

So now, as I approach middle age, I can say my athletic career helped me get mentally tough, become proud of my heritage, and empowered me not be a quitter.  Combat sports are cool, it is fighting with rules.  You either win or lose and you don't complain.  It's a fair contest. 

Music is entertainment, and both the looks and the talent of the musician matters.  It takes 20 years to master a skill, and I've been doing music over 20 years.  So I am a blues master.  I will keep going in this direction and be happy with it.

My Muse

I like the rhythm and blues.  Today's music is a crapulent, distorted descendent of Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker.  The delta blues which became the rhythm and blues is a combination of music and poetry of oppressed people.

I am tired of trying to be a copywriter or designer.  I don't want to work in an office.  It's not worth my time and effort.  I can learn to live on less money. 

The delta blues of the 1930s and 1940s became the rhythm and blues of the 50s and 60s.  This spawned the past 50 years or so of music. 

The thing about being a bluesman is, you got to cop your own style.  You listen to a lot of musicians, you start to imitate them, and then you find your own unique approach.  Then once you have a unique sound, you reinvent it each song you write.  Muddy Waters did this, so did John Lee Hooker.  So did Chuck Berry and Mississippi John Hurt.  They were clever songwriters and did more with less.

The muse is the inspiration.  It is something mysterious and stays with you all the time, night and day.  Life would be a mistake without music, everyone needs some type of music at some point.  People can do without art galleries and books, but no one can do without music.  Even geeks listen to music.

So I find inspiration in the music of the hard times, and I create my own unique sound.  The blues is the music of tragedy, and I've suffered a lot of tragedy.  I have not had an easy life.  But reversal is the movement of the Tao.

A New Thing

This is an artwork I recolored today and added some text.  It was originally an interpretation of a Roy Lichtenstein artwork I saw in a book about his career.  I like the way he elevated comic book art to high art through clever use of humor and aesthetics.

Here it is below:

Sunrise with Text

This is a reworking of an old art design with a brief poem or title on it.  Within the frame says, "Another Day Approaches as the Sun Rises'.  It also has the title of the artwork in the bottom right corner of the work. 

My life is getting more quiet as I age.  I concentrate on music, aikido, cooking, swimming, and dating women in a low socioeconomic bracket.  But I find time for art and like to recolor old artworks as a kind of mental and emotional therapy towards myself.  It's good for me.  

The secret to success is to do a little bit every day, and never give up on yourself.  Where there is effort, there is always results.

Chef Boyardee

This is just a jokey title for a blog post.  I enjoy cooking and have a comprehensive knowledge of nutrition.  My main talents are in music and grappling, but over the years, I have studied nutrition and learned a lot of cooking at home through trial and error.

I even spent a year or two with a master of raw foods veganism, learning how to make vegan dishes in a certain way in accordance with the teaching of one vegan guru or another.  I no longer believe veganism is the right thing for everyone.  But at least there are people who know nutrition and eat too little not too much food.

The main thing in food is protein, fiber, and starch.  Protein is the main nutrient, our bodies are made up of protein.  Even the DNA of our bodies tell our own cells how to reconstitute amino acids into our own proteins.  There is protein in plant and animal foods, but animal protein is easier to digest and assimilate. 

Fiber is the indigestible carbohydrate in food that cleanses your colon and gives you satiety.  It is also the most probiotic thing there is.  Fiber has no use to our body, and yet, it is extremely valuable. We cannot do without it, and most plant foods in nature have fiber in them.  So you need a diet of both protein and vegetables, and don't neglect either.

Starch is important.  It fuels your performance.  Starch is the storage form of glucose, or blood sugar.  Starch is found in things like beans, corn, potatoes, peas, carrots, rice, bread, pasta, quinoa, etc...  The more active you are, the more starch you need to fuel your life, and the less active you are, the less starch you need.

The Atkins diet is good if you are 30 or more pounds overweight.  It is a good start for people in America who are tired and sick and heavy.  But it is not a lifelong solution, and eating a diet of just protein, vegetables, and cheese is not too smart.

So I know what I must do to stay healthy.  I want to be disability free all my lifespan, so I eat what my body needs not what I want to enjoy.  Food is fuel.

My two main careers now are the music and the Aikido.  These are things I've been doing over 20 years each.  But food is very important to me.  If I didn't eat right, I'd be sick and then I wouldn't be able to be a musician or grappler.  Eating right is the foundation of health and medicine. 

What really sparked me to learn about nutrition was gaining weight from certain meds I took in my mid 20s.  I wanted to lose the weight, so I studied nutrition, cookbooks, and the Atkins diet to cure my problem.  This is how I learned about nutrition, by getting sick in the first place.  Reversal is the movement of the Tao.  Now at 41, I look much younger than my age, and I am more fit than most men over 30.  So I didn't waste my time or effort.  I have a lot of knowledge, and I already wrote two books which are available on Amazon.  They are 'Sport and Physical Culture' and 'Taoist Nutrition'. 

So I have learned a lot over the years, and I find that the most important message you can impart to the youth is, college is a scam, and if you really want to empower yourself, learn on your own.  The library, the bookstore, and online video course sites like Udemy and Skillshare are really more useful than a college degree.  You learn by doing, not by digesting someone else's knowledge.  I learned music, grappling, and nutrition by myself, and these are things that still help me on a daily basis.  My acupuncture and graphic design degrees do not help me. 

So in addition to whatever I do, I see nutrition as the foundation of medicine and the first knowledge to acquire in life.  By 15, you should know nutrition, and I know 40 year olds that don't know the difference between fiber and starch.  American society has debased values and I am trying to help.  Donald Trump is trying to aggrandize himself, but I am trying to help.  So he is bad and I am good.  But you don't have to believe me. 

The point of this blog post is, teach yourself by learning on your own.  Knowledge is power, and the more you learn, the better a person you are.  Don't go to school just for a certificate with your name on it.  Learn enthusiastically and practice when you are not in school.  You learn by doing, and you get good through experience.  This is called duty concomitant with desire. 

The Science of the Eight Limbs

This is the knickname for Muay Thai in Thailand.  It is the eastern concept of what 'boxing' is, and it is one of the best self defense systems ever created.  It is up there with boxing, karate, and tai chi. 

Muay Thai is complete kickboxing where punching, kicking, kneeing, and elbows are allowed.  Throws and submissions are not allowed.  It is the pure art of striking and conditioning.  This style of kickboxing has been going on since the 1700s, but has only been civilized, in a ring with gloves since the 1930s when Europeans where in Thailand.  Muay Thai started as an extension of the weapons tactics of the Thai army.  Thailand was never conquered by Imperialistic European forces.  They fought for their freedom, and they stayed free.

Muay Thai is obviously very brutal and very competitive.  It takes more skill and knowledge than western boxing, but is still hardcore, competitive, and full of anger.  Had I not been a fool, I would have stuck with Muay Thai and not vascillated between Olympic combat sports like boxing and judo for so long.  I don't regret my self defense education, but I could have done it better.  But those days are gone.

The thing is, the atmosphere of a boxing gym or Muay Thai gym is very different from a judo dojo.  They are self defense athletes, so all they know is punching and kicking full contact.  It is not a real sport, it is legal self defense, and they are all egotistical and proud.  I have the strength and athleticism of a boxer, but I don't have the courage and anger and hatred.  I am not an angry man who wants to fight.  Judo is physical education, and the point is to win by countering the aggression not by attacking. 

It turns out, Judo has little to do with self defense, and nothing to do with combat.  Judo is a foundational skill like collegiate wrestling, and teaches you to stand, not fall down easily, not be pinned, get off your knees, gripfight, breakfall, and transition.  It turns out Aikido is a better martial art than Judo, but everyone wants to be the champion and no one wants to be the master. 

I trained mostly shootfighting, judo, and sambo.  The shootfighting training made me very experienced at groundfighting, and I excelled the other judoka in matwork.  But Judo was a vital part of my life, and I spent my entire prime, my late 20s, playing judo.  It culminated in playing Sambo and that was the best martial arts experience of my life.  Sambo is a combination of wrestling and judo, and is the ideal thing for military men to learn.  It was my way of serving in the military and making good on what could have been.

So I wasted my atheltic potential in boxing and muay thai but gained something else instead.  I mastered wrestling on the feet, and this made me very mentally tough and determined.  Judo makes you mentally tough, it makes you a winner.  That is why we can use it as physical education, because you learn how to win and lose and not despair.

Combat means stealth and weapons, and has nothing to do with fighting fair to see who is better.  Self defense itself is a combat sport, and you can do any sport you want to and master self defense.  I myself like wrestling on the feet, and have been good at it since my youth.  Even in my high school days I was a good wrestler, I just got pinned easily.  I quit wrestling in 1994, but started judo in 2004.  So between those ten years, a lot happened.  I am an experienced man.

Had I stayed with Muay Thai, I would have been rich, married, and established by now.  Every sparring teacher I had in youth is successful because they are hard working, outgoing, monogamous, and understand reality.  I saw Royce Gracie in the early UFCs and thought judo/jiu-jitsu is better than boxing.  I was naive because i am from a rich Jewish suburb shielded from real combat and violence.  Jews are nonviolent by nature.

At least judo and sambo made me tough, and I know self defense.  Every man in America thinks self defense is for children, and combat is what makes you 'the fittest'.  But this is the opposite of Christian virtue and wholesomeness.  Self defense makes you a good man, and Combat makes you an evil criminal.  America is all about business and warfare, and the best athletes are black, hispanic, or from Russia, where they have a different worldview. 

2020 is an Olympic year, and I will be looking forward to the judo event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  Sambo is not an Olympic sport, neither is Muay Thai.  Judo is the only Olympic sport that allows submissions like chokeholds and armbars.  The definitive moment where uki must give up or be injured or killed. 

I am now a retired athlete and can only watch from the sidelines.  But I remember the past, and will never forget what it was like to be young.  By 30, you are already old for Olympic sport, by 40, you are slow.  But there is still things you can do in martial arts and sport and fitness.  But everyone knows age 18 to 35 is your best athletic years.  Man is not immortal, at least not physically.

So I will continue to admire combat athletes like wrestlers and judoka and despise actual criminals who want to hurt you.  The hero fights the good fight, but doesn't actually fight.  The real fight is to do the right thing, and live a meritorious life. 

Had I had it all to do again, I would have trained Muay Thai and not Judo.  Some wrestlers use wrestling to stay up, not to go to the ground.  So I wasted my boxing/muay thai potential.  But as my life continues, I realize my other talent, music, is something that can't be lost.  Muay Thai is for young people. music can be done from age 8 til 80.  So I will never stop doing music, it is not dependent on physical strength or conditioning.

So the Hindus are right when they say, 'Everything you lose will come back to you in a different way.'  I lost martial arts but gained music.  And my scholastic educations didn't help me at all.  So start your extra curricular activities in youth and do what you want to do.  Do your hobbies long enough, and they become your profession.  This is what I am trying to teach the youth.

Controversy

There are something in life you cannot change.  You can change your political and religious views, but you cannot change your race and gender for example.  It is inborn, in your DNA.  Race and Gender is more indicative of who you will be than political ideology or religion.  You can change your religion.

On a mural on a wall in an Egyptian Pyramid of a Pharoah is a depiction of the four primeval races of man.  They are the European, the Asian, the African, and the Egyptian.  The Egyptians were not the same thing as Africans.  They were a seperate race.

In more recent times, a new race has emerged, the Latino.  They are mixed race by nature, not a pure race.  They tend to look brown skinned with Asiatic features.  They can look extremely caucasian, brown, black, or even aboriginal Asian.  Latinos are mixed race people.

So perhaps the Latinos are the future of the human race.  If enough intermarriage happens, everyone will eventually have brown skin and Asiatic features.  There will be homogeny amongst the human race, and less conflict over race and identity. 

The riddle is, there are only three religions.  The old religion, the new religion of Judaism, and the promise of Christianity.  I am not a Christian.  I don't believe in Jesus or a physical resurrection of corpses from the ground.  That seems like mythology. 

Ultimately, you can be a good Hindu or a good Jew and reach the same end.  A fulfilled life of altruistic action and a contented death.  But you can never be the master, as a human being you are limited by a human body and dependent on the earth for food.  God doesn't need us, we need him.  He only gives to us, and the only thing we can give him is a song.

So Judaism is a better religion than Yoga, although Yoga has more capacity to civilize the gentiles and bring world peace.  Hinduism or Yoga means Henotheistic religion, not paganism.  The One God behind the Many.  It does not mean polytheism.  These ideas have been proven wrong, pagans have no real faith.

I reiterate you can change your religious or political beliefs, but you cannot change your race or gender.  If at some point you acquire the Y chromosome, you are born male with balls and can produce semen.  Sex is all about the giving and receiving of semen.  It is the transfer of genetic information.  The man gives and the woman receives.  This is nature.

So I am proud to be a type of Hispanic Jew.  It is not that far off.  Although I have admiration for other races and other religions, I feel Latin people are the most intense and Judaism is the best religion.  So I am an upright man.  I should be admired in the community.  If nothing else, I contributed my judo career and now I have my music career.  I want to enjoy my life and benefit others too.  Mutual welfare and benefit.

The most important thing I ever did in my life was attain enlightenment.  And I did it at a precious age of 8.  So all my life has been joy within suffering.  Enduring until the end.  The Yogis call enlightenment samadhi, while the Zen buddhists call it kensho.  But I like Yoga more than Buddhism because it is less strict and less about monastic discipline.  You can have more fun as a Hindu. 

So my words should not be controversial, they are all true.  Just like Sadhguru, a leader in India who has a strong social media influence, I say accurate things and try to help people.  But he is more tactful and mature and I am more straightforward and blunt.  Each of our innate natures conforms to our heritage.  He is an Indo-European, I am a kind of Latino.  But once you attain samadhi, you are equally the master as any other master.  Only fools despise knowledge.

There are other things I would like to explore.  I want to learn about Latin American Studies, more Yogic philosophy, the myths of the Norse and Celts, and more about Judaism.  There is more to Judaism than what the rabbis teach you.  They are trying to protect you from knowing too much for your own good.  You have to be mature before you can handle the real knowledge.  Knowledge is power, and like a weapon, it can hurt someone. 

So I urge you reading this to learn more, not in a college or high school, but on your own, from libraries, bookstores, and through online courses.  Truth is stranger than fiction.  I've learned most from the Baghavad Gita, because it is a kind of sourcebook of mysticism and philosophy.  If you've mastered the Gita, you've mastered every other book in the library.  And yet, most Americans cannot even prounce the Gita let alone know what it is about.  Well done is better than well said.

The ultimate teaching of yoga is that there is a kind of divine justice in the world.  It is called Karma.  Your own actions come back to you in this life and the next.  So you can't blame God or the devil for your calamity.  You are responsible for yourself, and you can help yourself.  Yoga is the ultimate self help guide. It is Indo-European mysticism for attaining freedom.  This is the best thing you can do with your life, attain enlightenment and be happy with everything.  It truly is a better life than living for Money and Women.

Rock n Roll and Hip Hop

These two forms of music that are listened to today can be traced to two primeval ancestors, both of whom where very similar in their original day.  They were Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker.

Both had remarkable careers starting around the 1950s.  Chuck Berry was from St. Louis and John Lee Hooker was from the south, growing up mostly in Mississippi and then migrating northwards towards Detroit, Michigan.

Chuck Berry invented rock and roll, and John Lee Hooker is largely responsible for the black music of the past 50 years. 

Berry's music had the most influence of any musician ever, and most people today only know Johnny B. Goode as his signature song.  It's a nice song, but he wrote many, many others that are better.  He practically invented rock guitar and was the first guitar hero.  Elvis was known as good looking with a great voice, but Chuck Berry invented the style of guitar that would influence every young boy to pick up a guitar and play. 

John Lee Hooker was also a black man who played guitar.  But his music was different.  It was more soulfoul, more ryhthmic, and more straightforward.  He played the boogie.  The monochord song based on African rhythms and melodies.  It is an ancient sound.  His hit, 'Hobo Blues' is quintessential of his sound and the sound that would influence many, many people both black and white.  Without John Lee Hooker and staying on the one chord, there'd be no funk, disco, hip hop, rap, or anything else black people listen to.  And he himself was a quiet, small mild man from Mississippi who didn't really like partying that much.  He created something.

So when I play guitar, I try to sound like Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker combined.  Rock n Roll and Hip Hop at the same time.  I traced the daughters back to the mother.  The mother is rhythm and blues.  The ancestor of all modern music.

Chuck Berry would play three chord songs with a more upbeat, major tonality, and John Lee Hooker would stay on the one chord and groove.  Both had valid styles, and left a legacy.  So I like both, and I don't have to choose between white and black.  Racial politics in the USA does not affect me none.

My latest album, Trouble On My Way, explores original rhythm and blues compositions, flamenco songs, a Howlin Wolf cover, and an instrumental.  It is pretty good, and shows how I am progressing as a musician.  I am a real rhythm and blues player, I am not just an amateur musician.  So dig it and check me out on Spotify and YouTube.  It doesn't cost you anything, and it helps me. 

The music will never stop.

Don't Die With Your Music Still Inside Of You

You have to express yourself before it is too late.  Our human lives are extremely brief, and by 50 you start to age, your health problems begin, and it is harder to get aroused.

That doesn't mean life is a free for all and you get to do as much sin as you want.  Moderation destroys all sorrow.  Enjoy the world in moderation, and create your own religion.

I've been playing music for so long, but never dared share it with the world until 2017.  In the past two years or so, I have enjoyed a great revival.  It is like a new lease on life.  While I am not rich, I am more popular, and this gives me wind.

You don't get anything by staying at home and keeping to yourself.  Home is an artificial environment where you feel safe and you can be yourself.  But if you want success, you must leave the house and share your talents with others.  And if you want a girlfriend, don't use dating sites or bars.  Get involved in hobbies, and meet people with common interests.

Don't die with your music still inside of you.  Let it out.  Express yourself.  Feeling good. 

Life would be very hard without music, because the ears are the most fundamental sense organ.  They are located closest to the brain.  As you lay dying, your sense of hearing will be the last sense to go before you are completely dead.  Hearing is fundamental.  Life would be a mistake without music.

So get into music, whatever type you like, and even learn music yourself.  These days, with the rise of guitar videos, there are more musicians than ever, and fewer people making money from it.  I don't know if this is an improvement or a degradation.

I know my rhythm and blues music is exceptional, and I deserve more money.  But I don't know business principles, marketing, and strategy.  So I am poor.  But at least someone out there is listening to my stuff, likes it, and keeps coming back.

So I will keep creating, even if I never become The Beatles or whatever.  Pop stars aren't that talented anyway.  They just have the right blend of looks, talent, marketing, business savvy, a good team behind them, etc... They are not necessarily the best musicians. 

There's no justice.

The Home Life

I am learning to be less ambitious.  I wasted a lot of time.  I am middle aged now, and I am no longer part of the youth. 

The biggest parts of my life now are music and home cooking.  It is easy and fulfilling to stay home and be less ambitious.  I don't need a lot of money to feel good.

I have an expert knowledge of music, grappling, nutrition, philosophy, and communications.  I have a lot of education, but not a lot of earning power.  The money is not the important part.

I don't really know what I can monetize effectively.  I find music most fulfilling, but it is not that profitable these days.  I also like nutrition and fitness, and find delight in teaching people stuff they should already know.  I also like judo, aikido, and Combat Sambo. 

I know I need to change my behavior to change my results.  I am not a madman.  I am an inspired man.  There is a difference.

Leaving to live on my own is the best thing right now.  So is budgeting and learning to live within my means.  But to create money, you need to find where your talents and the needs of the world intersect.  What you are good at, what is valued, and what they are willing to pay for.

But if I had my way, I'd just stay at home cooking and cleaning and playing the guitar.  I am a loner and a homebody.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Finding a Way

My life has been one long, convaluted story.  It has not been easy to get to where I am at now.  I could have quit and died at many points during my life, but I am not a quitter, so I didn't die.

My main scholastic educations where in acupuncture and graphic design.  And they didn't pay one damn cent.  Book learnin' doesn't work.  At least through wholistic medicine, I learned about dairy and gluten free diets, and through graphic design education I learned how Photoshop can be used to create original cartoon art.

To this day, I cook my own food, I observe reality with a trained eye, I draw from time to time, and I create my own cover art for my music albums and nutrition books.  But I feel I paid too much money for my education.

The best things I did in my life were hobbies.  I started music in 1995 with a Jewish friend who taught me riffs from Day Tripper and Can't Get No Satisfaction.  I've been playing guitar for over 25 years. 

I started wrestling in junior high school, but only started shootfighting, a combination of kickboxing and grappling, in 1998.  I was 19 when I learned the armbar from the open guard.  Shootfighting was ahead of its time, I was learning MMA moves before MMA was legal in New York!  It had to be called Freestyle Grappling to be technically legal on the kickboxing shows on long island.  Now, MMA is more popular than ever.

So I am a musician and a martial artist.  Shootfighting led to judo and sambo, and this helps you master the principles of Aikido.  Of wrestling with and without weapons on the battlefield.  It is not about doubles and singles and hip throws and arm drags.  It is about trapping, about street effective clinch techniques.

Now that I am 41, I don't even like training martial arts anymore.  I've sustained so many injuries over the years, I don't do pushups anymore, I am slow, and I have no fighting spirit.  I would teach Tomiki Aikido now if I had a student or two.

But I know if I get a degree in Music Education, things will light up.  I would gladly teach guitar to people of all walks of life.  Rhythm and Blues is so old it is like a folk music by now.  Something uniquely American, a contribution to world society. 

The music of the 1960s was about secular gospel music bringing white kids and black kids together.  Today, America is more racially divided than ever, and white kids and black kids listen to totally different music.

I am not just a musician.  I am also a scholar, a historian, and a poet.  Through rhythm and blues music, one can teach, guide, instruct, and heal.  It is a secular gospel music, and the more I age, the more tired of the world I get.  I am becoming more Christian.  The world is not improving, it is degrading as we approach Judgement Day.

So my music is becoming less about sex, death, and adultery, and more about love, social injustice, morality, loneliness, and desire.  I am going from delta blues to gospel blues.  Life is not the way it should be, it's the opposite.  There's nothing right about the world. 

So wholistic medicine and commercial art didn't help me, but music and grappling did.  Practice your hobbies long enough, and they become your profession.  You don't do things to make money.  You do what you love with enthusiasm, and you get compensated for it.  This is good business.  College is a scam, the medical health system is a scam, restaurants charge a 500% markup, dating is essentially a thinly veiled prostitution, etc...

I am finding a way and it has nothing to do with what I learned in high school or college. I wasn't educated right.  But I survived anyway and learned that most people are talking nonsense.  This shit is ridiculous. 

You can be motivated by money or by love.  But I find, if you are motivated by love, the money will come anyway.  So I do what I want to do and I don't worry about the money.  It's just money.

Doing the Boogie

I've been playing guitar a long, long time.  I originally didn't have good ears and learned visually not through the ears.  But given enough time and listening to enough blues music, I developed my pitch and hearing and learned how to spot the chord changes. 

I feel most comfortable playing a one chord boogie or a three chord blues song.  So you could say I am a primitive blues musician.  Something a la John Lee Hooker, Lightnin Hopkins, and Chuck Berry, all of which never used more than three chords per song.  One chord is minimal, three chords is a simple song, the Beatles would use 7 or 8 chords per song.  The Anglosaxon took simple black music and made it more complex and intricate.

But I like to keep it simple and near it's origins in the rural south of the USA.  Right now, Lightnin Hopkins is my favorite musician to watch videos of, and I find it so entertaining.  A black and white video from the 1960s of a mature black man playing acoustic boogie is more interesting than anything, and I get so much entertainment out of it.  He mastered the instrument.  There are not many authentic masters of music like him in today's music.  Some know nothing about real music, others like Billy Joel and Elton John are too sophisticated.  Sing a simple song.  I like the way a black man plays guitar.

I know there is not much blues going on on long island in this day.  In Texas or Mississippi, the music is still popular, because it's their music.  But here in New York, I am an oddball.  I'd like to visit Texas and play somewhere.  They'd go crazy for my kind of music.

So I keep doing the boogie, and I don't care if nobody else understands me.  All the black dance music of the past 50 years is derived from John Lee Hooker and the one chord boogie.  I am starting to get more advanced and move towards Lightnin Hopkins and the roots of rock n roll.  But it all comes down to African rhythms and sounds on European instruments.  It is a better way to rebel than to put boxing gloves on and be an angry black man.   Rhythm and Blues can be used as a vehicle to teach, to heal, to guide, and to educate in moral principles.  It is not just pop music or dance music.  It has a message.

Suffering is grace.